The Supreme Court has fixed December 15, 2023 to deliver judgment in the
appeal filed by the federal government against the Court of Appeal’s judgment, which set aside the criminal charges preferred against leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and ordered his release.
Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun fixed the date after taking arguments from Kanu’s lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Tijani Gazali, SAN, who represented the federal government.
The Federal Government, while presenting its case, appealed to the apex Court to void and set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which voided the charges against Kanu and ordered his release.
Gazali specifically pleaded that the earlier judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which upheld the seven-count charges against Kanu be affirmed so that Kanu can be brought for trial.
However, while opposing the federal government’s position, Ozekhome maintained that the Federal Government has since June 29, 2021, been detaining Kanu illegally, unlawfully and unconstitutionally.
The Senior lawyer pleaded that the judgment of the Court of Appeal, which quashed the entire charges against Kanu and ordered his immediate release be upheld and affirmed by the Supreme Court.
Ozekhome maintained that Kanu’s continued detention by the federal government was unlawful in the face of the subsisting Court of Appeal judgment, which had ordered that Kanu be immediately released.
Insisting that no government has power to trample on the fundermental rights of citizens as in the case of Kanu, Ozekhome maintained that his client was being detained in gross violation of both local and international laws.
He, therefore, urged the Supreme Court to uphold the judgment of the Court of Appeal and order the immediate release of Kanu from detention.
It could be recalls that the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, had on October 13, 2022 in a judgement in an appeal filed and argued by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, dismissed the remaining 7-count criminal charges brought against Kanu by the Federal Government at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
